UPDATE(new Jennifer Lopez details below): American Idol’sMariah Carey is one unhappy diva because of the drama between her and fellow judge Nicki Minaj, according to Carey’s husband Nick Cannon. “She didn’t sign up for that,” he said today to LA’s KTLA-TV morning show host Sam Rubin (video below). On air, Cannon accused “someone behind the scenes perpetuating” the conflict. Once the camera was off, Cannon blamed Fox Alternative Entertainment chief Mike Darnell for bringing Minaj onto the show. “No one thought it was a good idea then and no one thinks it is a good idea now,” Cannon said. (See related Falling ‘Idol’ Fuels New Mariah-Minaj Feud.)

Meanwhile Deadline has learned new details about Idol and Jennifer Lopez. The singer will use Season 12’s May 16th finale to debut her new single Live It Up from her 8th album. It is being released through producer RedOne’s 2101 label that is distributed by Capitol Music which signed her to a big new record deal. Also Fox is desperate to bring back Jennifer Lopez to the show next year after its feeble attempt to replace Mariah with J-Lo on Idol didn’t go anywhere. An insider tells Deadline’s Nikki Finke about Lopez: “Fox is chasing her. They want her back. She has not made her mind up about it. She is on the fence. They wanted her to replace Mariah. There was no way she was going to do that. They started talking to her hard about next year. She really liked doing it but big question if she should do it again.”

Cannon was doing publicity for his own show, America’s Got Talent, which he hosts again starting June 4th. Today he also raised doubts that Carey would be coming back to the once-dominant show next year if asked. “If they get it stable she might relook at it, but she doesn’t want to be a part of anything unstable,” he told KTLA’s Sam Rubin. This season has set record lows.

Here’s Cannon’s KTLA appearance:

Cannon today also said Carey predicted problems between Minaj and her before the two were even brought on board as new judges this season.
“My wife [has] foreseen all this. She tried to tell the network, ‘I don’t think this is going to work, I’m afraid,’ ‘ Cannon said. He added that Carey thought any attempt to set things up between her and Minaj was the wrong direction for Idol. “This is going to turn into one of those reality shows,” Cannon said Carey, an Idol fan, told him noting, “I didn’t sign up to be on Love And Hip Hop.” Cannon made similar comments about Carey and the Fox series on CBS’ The Talk today. On that show, Cannon dismissed Idol as “a footnote” in his wife’s career.

Cannon’s comments come less that a week after the latest on-air spat between the two singers on Idol. Minaj took it to Twitter, calling Carey “insecure” and “bitter” after the two got into a brief back-and-forth about Minaj never having had a Billboard Top 100 No. 1 song. Carey never responded to the taunts, and the two were civil May 2 on what turned out to be a record-low show for Idol. Not that it was easy for Mariah, said Cannon today. “My wife is trying to take the high road but it feels like the producers and everyone want to play into sound bites,” he told Rubin.

This isn’t the first time Cannon has played proxy for Carey over her blowups with Minaj. He told The View last October that the struggling Idol was seeking publicity and ratings from the judges’ dust-ups. Cannon said he thought that video of the September on-set war of words between the duo was deliberately leaked. Of course, Cannon and Carey aren’t above using the controversy for publicity either: Carey has a new single out today, as Cannon pointed out more than once.